I had pulled over on the side of a packed dirt road that rose out of a valley in which lay a lake. Earlier in the dream I had stolen a tank from an underground facility. On my way out, a wall-mounted camera had swiveled to take a picture of the vehicle as it emerged. The tank looked like an updated M4 Sherman with a set of advanced, modern treads. Its turret housing was studded with sensors, and it was painted in NATO snow camouflage, large mottled specks of blue, black, and white.

For some reason I had exited the tank and was over by a copse of trees near the edge of the dirt road - to pee perhaps. In a heap of brown leaves I saw a curled-up patch of fur, a bar-coded collar, and a pair of alert feline ears. I made the rapid whistling sounds necessary to get any cat’s attention, whereupon the animal lifted its head and turned its face toward me. It was wearing a disposable dust mask of maroon color under a metal muzzle affixed firmly with an adjustable leather strap to its head. The muzzle covered its entire nose and mouth and was made of an oval of scratched steel with some sort of alphanumerics stamped onto it.

The beast stood up, its tail flicking upward in the manner of a curious and approachable feline. It started walking my way, and I cast mine eyes about for a food or water dish, concerned that with the muzzle on its face the cat could neither eat nor drink. Just before the dream changed radically I noticed a tarnished, worn wristwatch of cheap gold strapped to one of the cat’s forelimbs, again over a patch of maroon cloth.